Cassidy made it back to class.

And she made a full loop around the outer edge of the room to get to her seat.

And then she'd pulled out a book.

With her phone still clenched in one hand, she did her best to act like everyone else.

Calm.

Collected.

"Cassidy." Mr. Gurshed boomed, "I'm marking you late. I hope you aren't travelling down the wrong path and picking up any bad habits."

His fake concern would've been fine if it hadn't been immediately followed by a genuine concern for his nephew who came opened the door at the end of that statement, as if to punctuate the irony.

Leo was leaning back in his chair, watching her.

He wasn't wearing a hoodie today, Cassidy's brain took note.

Her hand was sweaty around her phone.

She pushed it into her backpack and then grabbed her book, pretending to pick up where she left off.

Shay-James was sitting next to her, looking miserable.

He pushed across a note over the desk between them.

It read:

What do you do when you really like someone? And you want them to like you back?

Cassidy rolled her eyes mentally.

Of course, he was talking about Emy and their weird thing.

Shay-James was like a nervous puppy. He was shy and confused. She'd give him a little advice that would get him exactly where he wanted to be.

She wrote back everything she knew that her best friend would totally appreciate:

Tell her. In public. Be honest. And then ask her to go steady. She'd be stupid to reject that.

She handed it over, then winced when she realized how sharp it had sounded.

But Shay-James's eyes widened, and he looked slightly appeased.

Good. All he needed was a little push in the right direction.

She couldn't believe she was still middle-manning her best friend's relationship while they were Seniors.

Mr. Gurshed went off on a long speech about one of his unrelatable childhood stories.

They didn't even relate to the lesson.

Ian was sitting in front of her and to her left.

He shifted in his chair and her hands clenched on her book.

She looked down at her tense fingers, her nails making dents in the paper.

She forced herself to relax.

Let go of the paper.

Shay-James was fidgeting nervously next to her, making her lose focus on her reading several times.

Every time she looked his way, he would stop, but as soon as she went back to reading he kept moving anyway.

Leo didn't move at all.

She almost forgot he was there, and for a guy his size, that was pretty hard to do.

She remembered when he pulled a container from his backpack.

She desperately wanted it.

The food in the container.

The light, easy friendship.

The normality.

But Ian leaned back in his chair, making it creak, and her eyes darted from that container to her backpack, which held a cellphone and a note.

She just couldn't risk the attention.

He set a fork down.

On her desk, rather than near it.

She flicked her eyes up in suprise when his tan hand was suddenly right in front of her face, and that made it only more obvious when she quickly pushed her face down to the page she'd been staring at for ten minutes.

She heard a small puff of air.

He was confused, probably offended.

But Cassidy wasn't going to get hurt.

She didn't want any of this.

The drama.

The risk.

So, when the bell rang, she closed her book, not bothering to put it in her bag before she circled around the edge of the room and booked it.